CAMPER JAM 08/ A Pickle Down Under

Last Thursday I rolled up to Weston Park for the 2nd time this season but on this occasion for a totally new VW show to me, The Massive 'Camper Jam'.

As I cruised through the gates and passed by the sheep and goats dotted around grazing, I could see the Marquees and mass off trade stalls approaching and started to get a vibe for the size of this beast.

After a meet with the team I found my spot and started set up. The Thursday was was the prep day for all the traders and food stalls and it did make a nice change not to rush it plus the Hog roast provided was greatly welcomed (also a big contributing factor for me actually making it that afternoon).

It wasn't long before I started bumping in to the circuit gang, Spence Gilroy https://www.facebook.com/SGPercussion, and Sarah Herve https://www.facebook.com/bellabotssockmonkeys, to name a couple.

With a belly full of Pig and set up done, there was a mist coating the grass as the sun set so time for a stroll to see whats what and where.

With over a mile of stalls I only got a couple of hundred meters and bumped in to Spence again and chilled in his van for a tin.

On my return to Pickle, after calling it a night, I had the pleasure of meeting this Awesome human.

Meet Dave Manning!

https://www.facebook.com/davemanningz

Dave is a fellow travelling songwriter, on this occasion he rocked up in his wife's 66 beetle kitted out like a one man camper van with removable drivers seat and full length bench running along the other side and back, but Dave's usually touring in his 65 split screen 'Vincent' from AK to the deserts of Arizona and all in between playing a different town every few days.

He is an amazing musician, writer, pianist, and a wicked cool guy singing fascinating entertaining stories with a Blues, folk, Americana kinda vibe.

We had both been booked to play and host the Busk Stop, and I couldn't have asked for a better dude to team up with.

The next couple of hours were spent in Pickle sharing drinks, smoke, stories and better acquainting ourselves.

It was a pretty lazy start on the Friday, not rising till gone 10 and this set the bench for entire weekend really, but again a very leisurely final set up as we watched the festival goers arrive.

  

We got going early evening when there were more folks about and George had arrived to slap the bass.

It was an evening of pretty chilled sessions, we had a few folks jump up and play some tunes for us including Nia and Josh Mathews in between Dave and I, and then Drew and Ben rocked up and we all jammed on through till midnight.

It was after pack down when we all established quite how big the show was as we went in search of the Shropshire Dubbers camp for a hang and beer funnel training.

It seemed to go on for ever, past the trading, and on and on following a laser pen signal to the sky, and then the rain full on set in, big ass chunky rain luckily just as we were found and escorted to their camp.

We all sat round in their event shelter conversing and sipping sensibly on beer funnels listening to the rain. :D

Thanks for having us guys, love to see some shots/beer funnel vids if there are any kicking.

Saturday was when it all Kicked off, Josh and Beth arrived and we had the whole gang there.

The weather was banging, the arena was rammed, and the vibes were just right so we got playing.

Drew and Ben

These Guys were playing in the Brothers Tent on the Friday night I believe and they came, they played, and people loved it.

For the next lot of playing Thought we better have a shift around as it had cooled off a little and the sun was soon to set.

Sunset session from the rack? Hell yea!

 This Dude Aaron Samuel fancied a play on the roof and he was cracking, check him out at https://www.facebook.com/aaronsamuel.music 

 Remember my mate James Jackson I met at Bustypes earlier on in the season? He was out and about again busking around and came and graced us with some tunes as well.
First ever guest to play on the roof was our James, diamond kid.

 James Jackson

We then got shut down as always but not in a bad way we powered down, jumped down, and played some more unplugged with Spence, Drew, and Ben.

 It was a truly epic day and night I hope all of you that were there had as much fun as we all did.

Sunday was interesting. Dave got the ball rolling, the sun was out, all was grand so I went off for a potter about to see what was going down. About 45 minutes later the skies grew dark and I felt a few drops, then a few more, over the space of a minute it got progressively heavier and my pace grew progressively faster to help dave rescue the gear from what was about to be unleashed.
We got back just in time to get most covered but even the tarp wasn't saving this lot.
I think we had too much fun the day before cos this was horizontal giant fatty boebbatty rain, everything got saturated and it wasn't safe to plug in and play any more even when it had stopped.
Sunday was a wash out in all sense of the term but it didn't matter, It had been a bloody great show already with new and old friends, new music, and wicked cool vibes.

The rest of the Sunday was spent drying out, chilling out, and hunting for lakes. We bought some chicken for dinner from the Caribbean food stall as they packed away and made a jerk chicken and rice dish later that night.
A beautiful ending to an amazing weekend.

I would like to thank all the guys that came to play at the busk stop, Dave for being such a legend and inspiration, Beth and Anneliese for being amazing help with merchandise and all round support, everyone that came over to hang and listen to the tunes, and Camper Jam for having us.
Blessings!

A Pickle Down Under!!

So thats it for a few weeks now Veedub show wise, now I have the window to get solidly stuck in to readying Pickle and me ready for the mission down under.

I have received my renewed passport and my Australian visa today which made everything feel very real all of a sudden.

Pickle is heading in to MV Engineering next week to get going on the body work and I'm meeting with my friend Mitra to get going on the forthcoming fundraising events. A couple of dates for the calendar so far are the 8th August there will be a very limited number of invitations to 'Pray for a pickle down under' gig at The Grand Chapel and I'll keep you posted on how to get involved soon, 20th August I'm heading to see my sponsors VW Heritage https://www.vwheritage.com to play at their August meet, 5th of September for #apickledownunder fest, my own mini VW show in Broom, Bedfordshire, the 16th September is an online stageit gig live streamed from the van https://www.stageit.com/stage/46082 4th October Farewell Pickle gig  at a venue in London that I'll confirm next week.

A month or so ago Nick Kent of http://www.nickkentphotography.com and I went out to put together a little vid to fill you guys in on what #apickledownunder is all about, and here it is.

Thanks to all for your support so far, it means the world.

Peace x

SUMMER SESSIONS! PART 3

On the morning of June 16 I said my good byes to Bruce and the team at Mighty Dubfest and took to the coastal road heading north from Druridge bay.
One of the beautiful things about heading up this coastline is that it's not long before castles start popping up across the landscape. Some in ruins surrounded by fields or marking the tops of sea cliffs and others standing strong supported by lively market towns and historic villages.
I passed a lot of places That I would have liked to stop and have a potter about but I had a long way to drive over the next four days and not knowing how pickle was gonna cope I looked at this trip as a taster to encourage a future trip round the North and scottish coast.

 The first castle I came across, to the left behind the trees. I'm sure you've realised by now my photo's are pretty shat.

 General cruising shots from Pickle

 This was the first beach I briefly called at

The above photo's were all taken during over whelming excitement due to being out on the road with no commitments till the weekend.
I didn't stay long as there was a specific bay a guy from the festival had described to me. This dude had been driving round the coast and through Scotland west to east and had stopped of at Mighty Dubfest. We got chatting after one of my sessions and he showed me some awesome photos of the places he'd been and told me of this beach that very few knew of off the beaten track on the way to Edinburgh. I planned to stay near the city and do some street performing the next day so visiting this secret beach would fit in nicely with my schedule.
On being educated of this spot he was asked not to share the location with too many so's not to ruin its vibe, and he said the same to me, so I will not say more on its location. After following the few land marks he had advised me to keep an eye out for I found the route and it was exactly as he had described.

"just before..... there's a track to the right on a corner. At the end of the track you'll find a rusty old parking barrier and coin unit".

"Put a couple of nuggets in and the arm should raise. Then just keep rolling down to paradise"

and it truly was paradise.

Clear sands, tree's, fresh water trickling down from the surrounding cliffs and mixing in to the rock pools enabling vegetation to grow in and around.

Oh and this had happened earlier on in the day before I forget. One of the reasons I don't do selfie's.

Crossing the scottish border

I continued up the East coast stopping every so often when something caught my eye. Before long I reached Edinburgh, It looked awesome and I was getting myself all geared up for a bit of street performing, then a few jars in a local pub and conversing with some new faces. First things first though needed to find some where to pitch for the night so I started to drive back to the outskirts in search of a quiet shady spot. 

Next thing I know I've an unmarked police car giving me the lights to pull over.

They did me for driving without a seat belt, £100 fine.

In the space of about two minutes my mood drastically deteriorated as I thought on the point that some tosser can break in to my van steal my shit costing me about £500 and get off scot free and I don't wear a seat belt, only putting myself in potential danger, and get screwed out of £100.

Where is the fairness/justice in that?

After this event I didn't much care to stay in Scotland long so I continued driving across the country to the West coast and ended up parked in a lay by in Ayrshire having a bbq feeling exceptionally sorry for my self.

Next morning I felt better about the situation, I was still adventuring, the van was running, and  I had enough cash for another few tanks. Despite feeling a lot better I was still a little bitter about my running with the scottish police and thought I would leave my scottish adventures for another time and continue to head south from here as I had to be in Essex for Battles Bridge VW Show in a few days.

I made my down through the Lakes, spending a night at a site in Ullswater, and playing in some waterfalls, then on to the Yorkshire Dales spending the eve at the top of hill with some sheep, stopped off to see the grand folks and pickle and I plodded our way slowly down to Essex.

Here's some shots from the way down.

The site I chilled at in Ullswater.

This was lower down in the falls that I had a dip in. It was odd to me cos it was roasting hot but no one else was in the water, they were all just sweating their tits off taking photo's??

This shot doesn't nearly do this tree justice, it was massive and looked like it had a woody, it made me chuckle.

The road out of Ullswater. just round that corner was a winding, steep as a mo fo, single lane road that we crawled up at about 5mph with loads of cars queuing behind. HA!

The pub at the top of the climb where I had a celebration pint and pickle had a rest. (I was so stoked we made it, was a bit hairy half way up) Oh yea and on the way down the other side I burnt the shit out of my break pads. I assume most know this already but for those that don't and are trying to save fuel. Do not cruise down steep hills relying solely on your breaks, they will stop working. Stay in a low gear, using engine breaking to assist.

This is where I stopped for the night in the Dales, It was an awesome spot.

This cave and river where at the bottom of the hill, bang tidy wash in the morning.

  

I pretty much nailed in to getting to Hertfordshire after Yorkshire as It was Summer Solstice the next day and I was doing a Performance in Harpenden at 6AM for BBC introducings Solstice 24 gigs in 24 hours.

Heres the link to the video and a shot, bit sketchy but it was 6AM!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPOYGFSKIQ

Gareth Lloyd and the rest of the BBC introducing team were with me for about half an hour before scooting off to their next artist and off I went to Battles bridge VW show.

Battles Bridge was a great show, It was my first year there but certainly hope to return next.

Held on the show ground of Battles Bridge Antique centre its by no means a massive show but there is plenty to see and get involved with and you don't have to treck miles back to your van from where all the action is.

I had a wicked shady little spot to set up the live lounge and there was no need for shelter as there was no rain or gales on the horizon.

The set up

Great to have a hang with the paint Scrapers again, thanks for the BBQ as well dudes x

Signing session, awesome kids!

The sass came to have a play on the last day.

We got VW white noise, secret garden party, and VW festival to go and then I'm all caught up.

Peace! x